i specifically remember a sermon illustration that pastor ahn did years ago when he used to be the pastor of our church. if i remember correctly, it was one of his last sermons so the message was supposed to be that much more important.

it went something like this

“a group of pastors met together to talk about church related things. the discussion turned to bibles. at the time, the new living translation had just come into being and bible translations was the topic of the hour. the pastors began to discuss which bible was the best. one of the older pastors in the group stood up and proclaimed it was the king james version because it was the old and stood the test of time. a younger pastor announced it was the new living translation because it’s ease to read. other pastors argued that the only way to read the bible was through direct translation from the greek and hebrew bible. the group started to become louder and chaotic.

finally, one quiet pastor stood up and said his piece. the best bible is the bible my father used. the one my father studied from. the one he took notes in. the one that he used to live his life.”

this is how i remember pastor ahn telling the story, though i just found in this website that it’s supposed to be said different. search greg ebie on the page if you want to find it.

i remember this one illustration by pastor ahn. i remember because while the rest of the congregation took in the story and nodded in acceptance of this thought-provoking response, i thought to myself…

what a stupid answer. the last pastor’s answer doesn’t solve anything. sure, it’s a feel good answer, but the original question truly isn’t solved. but we walk away as if it did. cop out answer

—

there was a meeting at church to discuss the nature of the church. it was called on by richard bae. ignoring the 1 hour extension of the meeting discussing the evils of drums at church, the affair was an excruciating hour and half long.

some conclusions that were made

1. the church is dying
2. something needs to be done
3. everyone wants something to be done
4. everyone wants someone else to do it

lazy

we also realized the “leaders” don’t know each other and the lack of sabbath school is a problem. here was my suggestion:

like we did years ago, for sabbath school, each “leader” should talk about their daily life and how God is a part of it. i also added that each leader should also explain how and why they’re currently christians. i also said i’d organize it because no one else was going to.

richard bae said the board would think about it.

later in the meeting, my uncle tom said something profound. “to make the church more spiritual, we need to have God in our thoughts.”

interesting comment. makes sense.
cop out answer.

thankfully, ben being there pointed it out. the fact that eight of us non-board members were at the meeting showed we wanted more. we wanted a more God-centric church.

the meeting ended with richard bae saying the board would discuss it.

it’s been two weeks. still no word. no sabbath school. and this church seems to be dying ever more. everyone knows it but what was once concern, now has become apathy.

like a captain to his ship, i find my spirituality going down with the church.

this post might be slightly nonsensical. i was interrupted more than a few times in the middle of writing the post and lost my train of thought most of those times

june 26, 2007
11:01 pm
i said no.

i said no to church.

and it feels good.

maybe i’ll elaborate more about it later

…now with new topping

it’s no secret i don’t like pinkberry. of things i enjoy, pinkberry finds itself placed among the likes of rubbing elbows, feminist and thai food. i don’t particularly hate any of these things. i just think the world would be a better place without all of them.

pinkberry is my paris hilton. i don’t care for it. it has no value to society. yet whenever i hear about it, my attention is oddly drawn to it. yesterday, the tv was on in the background of my thoughts while i mindlessly surfed the net. i heard two things. pinkberry and rats.

i obviously had to do a quick google news search.

apparently, the pinkberry’s in new york have a rat infestation problem – a problem they’ve had for a while but haven’t been able to fix. a new report states “He showed us photos of mice droppings covering food storage bins at the 82nd Street shop. He says when workers complained to supervisors, they were told to put down traps and clean up” (abc7 new york). that’s pretty nasty.

now here’s the irony, i bet even knowing this, it still won’t dissuade anyone from going to pinkberry. i refer to pinkberry as less of a frosty dessert but more of a drug. pinkberry loyalty is unusually strong. it seems akin to mcdonald’s in the early 90’s. if anything, it’ll probably fuel the loyals to want to go more.

mmmm… someone’s talking about pinkberry. let’s get some

“We alerted customers about the mice. But today’s discovery didn’t affect the line that did continue to snake out the door.

‘It doesn’t look like it was on the food, just on the floor,’ said one of customers.” (consumerist)

that’s just nasty…

pinkberry now shares a place next to taco bell in my book.

roll your eyes to this blog, sarah. i know you went to one of the new york pinkberry’s.

links
abc7
the consumerist

this august marks six years since i became vegetarian. this september would be eight years since i ate red meat. as i was walking today, i realized meat utterly repulses me now. i picture headless chickens and bloody cows. when i think about eggs for more than i should, the thought of even eating them makes me feel sick.

i’m sure i’d still enjoy the smell of kalbi or fried chicken or a juicy steak, but the thought of actually eating it makes me want to hurl.

a little bit ago, i made the one provision of eating meat. if i kill it myself, i’ll eat it. (catch a fish or run over a cow) but i still haven’t put the rule into effect yet. Dodgers stadium has an all-you-can-eat ticket on certain days. I’d think about breaking my vegetarianism for that but, i’m sure my stomach wouldn’t be up for that.

so it’s been six years. six years of a lot of boca patties and veggie dogs. me being the only vegetarian in the group isn’t so hard though. there’s always something on the menu i could eat. i’ve been meaning to make a compilation of the veggie foods you can get at various places. someday i’ll actually write it.

but not right now, i’m tired. not sure what the point of this post was.